Time has passed on previous initiatives, passing their preliminary judgement.

The weather here has turned dry and windy. The lack of a wind break around the vegetable garden has really taken its toll, but I have resisted the urge to plant it prematurely as damaging the weed matting too soon will allow the weeds dying underneath to pour out. For now I am just observing how things behave for comparison with later on when things are more developed.

The beds that were under green manure then sown with snow peas, greens and root crops germinated well enough without supplementary water as there was plenty held in the soil. Local native pidgeons seem to have taken a toll by pulling up seedlings, but a loosely sprawled layer of chicken wire seems to have saved a later sowing of root crops. The weather also cooled enough to let them get started faster. Those plants from the first sowing that made it through are growing well, if a little sparsely (but then again non-irrigated veggie gardening is all about maintaining adequate spacing, so I still have to get used to what things might look like).

After playing with a few rotation models I have decided to split the garden into two parts, one for the winter growing season (and subdivided into grains/roots/greens/legumes) and the other for summer (subdivided into solanaceae-with their disease burden/grains/roots/greens+legumes). This allows the tail end of a crop from one season to be left around without slowing down the next seasons start, a useful luxury in a frost free climate. It also means the more exposed half can provide winter crops with warmth and light, leaving green manures to cope with the summer heat. On the other end the more protected half will give the best conditions in summer, but leave the darker part of the year to the cool season green manures. A large half of the garden can also be more conveniently used by our chickens for forage, either by fencing the whole lot, or by reducing the distances for moving tractors week to week.

Since only parts of the winter half got green manure, and since a single green manuring even for those beds isnt enough to grow many veggies, I got a 20kg sack each of copra and bran (as suggested as a fertiliser in "gardening when it counts") and 3 cubic meters of good quality horse manure delivered to get the soil and season off to a good start. A 2 inch layer of manure was dug in with the seed meals, and another 2 inch layer added for a surface mulch. I intend to start sowing after letting it settle for a week only, but expect a few things will dislike the conditions (as they usually do).

The veggie garden has been tantalising so far. Just tastes of cucumbers and greens here and there and rows of seedlings expanding imperceptibly. A pile of compost and weedy/grassy top soil piled up from the bed preparation has sprung a healthy crop of pumpkins...probably a good lesson on how often our ideas of doing things "properly" is at odds with what plants really want.

In the orchard a few losses have occurred from the hot and windy weather out of around fifty transplants. An avocado bought on the cheap fell over from phytophthora (probably more stressed than the five healthy others from day one). This raises a good point about not taking it too personally if one of something dies. Even from a batch of apparently similar seedlings you often see some die horrible deaths as the others march along uninterrupted. A longan also died while two others are perfectly happy. It was a recently rooted cutting that I should have held back (though it was raining daily when I planted everything out, so I really couldnt have been sure either way...plant them too late and a frost may have finished everything off).

The chicken shed had been put up, and the foundation carefully wired underground a foot to stop foxes and dogs (and escapes). Wiring and roofing should be quick enough. We are planning on getting six australorp hens to start, then getting fertile eggs from a good local mail order breeder to improve the genetics.

I had a crisis of motivation after a mild flu, wondering if I had left it too late to get started on this "self sufficiency" (though I know it is more a matter of bringing quality back within reach while still enjoying some of the convenience of the modern world). Things are changing rapidly in the world re peak oil, but I realised that sitting around wondering about things wouldnt help matters. I am hopefully at the lowest point of returns versus investments with this little project (from a quality rather than money perspective). Even though I am a practiced gardener, I am working new soil, and unfamiliar soil, and have had to rush to get ahead of ideal planting times. Time spent away from the farm in the city is also limiting my ability to keep track of the necessary routine inputs, but should improve as time goes on. My next goal is to have an adequate veggie supply by the beginning of winter (June) leaving a reasonable 8 week growth period for fast crops like asian greens.